First Day, Color Parties, Homecoming & a Bear Hunt

Catching you up =)

Well, it seems I have allowed this blog to fall by the waste side doesn't it?

I will have to work harder at keeping it up. Add that to my list!

Let me see what pictures I can pull in to show you what has been going on in our world lately...

Let's be real.

Some days the only thing that gets me through is Route 44 Coke Zero. 

THIS is my coffee!

When I last blogged, school was about to start.

  I was prepping for a room full of preschoolers to descend on me.

I had no idea how hard, or how much fun it would be to teach again.

 I LOVE my job.

 Here are a few of the highlights thus far. Oh and a few of my crazy crafts =)

First Day Jitters!

 Twelve new Cubs descended on my class in mid-August to start PreK4s.

 I have a great mix of 6 girls and 6 boys.

I did not have anyone cry! Yeah!

The Cubs had meet me the week before and I was sure to show them just how silly

I am so they would be anxious to come back.

On the first day of school I have a TON planned, but know that most of it won't happen.

 I just hate to have empty space.

It sometimes causes a little homesick blues, so I avoid it.

After a few days of learning the schedule, expectations and transition songs I worked downtime into the day on purpose. I love to see what they do with free time =)

Here is one of my sweet cubs taking off because he did not want his picture made in front of the
"1st Day of Pre-K!" frame.

Don't worry he came right back after he show his friends take their pictures.

I even let them make a funny face in one of the shots.

The Cubs did awesome and we are set to have a great year!

We quickly breeze through the alphabet the first few weeks so that I can assess what kids know.
We review numbers 1-20, as well.

Then, we take the rest of the year and really concentrate on one letter and number each week.

It is tough to catch the kids up if they miss, but it is wonderful to see that most of them are very familiar with their letters and numbers.

Color Party Time!

We  concentrate one color a week. On Fridays, we have a color party. 

I decorate the class with balloons, write on the mirror, hang streamers from the ceiling and the kids wear or bring in something with that color.

Here is a group shot from "Orange Party".

We ate orange snack and talked about all the things we see that are orange.

They love each and every color party!

Homecoming

Shortly after school started we had "Homecoming Week".
(Gotta love the South, we think of any reason we can to wear weird clothes and have crazy hair!)

My class loved the week and seeing all the older kids dress up on 80's Day or Favorite Team Day.

Here are my own kiddos at the game sporting their 'Crazy Hair'.

Can you tell their Mommy gets into the spirit as well?

Oh, and don't forget, the 'floats' that each class makes. What a blast!

Bears in School???

After our Color Parties are all done for the year, I love to get the kids excited about the cool themes we have in our curriculum.

One of my favorites is Teddy Bears! 

We talk all week about different bear books, sizes and colors of bears and even sing bear songs. 

On the last day we go on a Bear Hunt! 

It seems a bear "has gotten loose in the school" and left us of clues to find him. 

I have faux magnifying glasses that each kid holds. 

We sing the Bear Hunt song as we roam the halls, going through the principals' offices and into a class or two. (Of course, I prepped everyone to say they had just seen the bear.)

Well... Look, who was waiting for us in the cafeteria!!!

 Beary even had Teddy Grahams and animal crackers. 

Did I mention how much I love my job?

Keep the Faith & Share your Smile,

~Aggie Amy

Rhyme Time, Birthdays Already and Cleaning Up

 Is it Rhyme Time?

How quickly the year is going! It is already time for a new theme. This week it was Nursery Rhymes. I took a picture of each child sleeping and made our own class book. It follows the Rhyme, "Little Boy Blue come blow your Horn".  I cut out the sleeping picture and put it under a yellow haystack that child had painted. In our case it went "Little Girl Grace come blow your horn. The Sheep is in the meadow, the cow's in the corn. Where is the girl who looks after the Sheep? She's under the haystack fast asleep." This is just one of our class books. The kids' LOVE them and can be found during center time reading and reading their favorite ones.

Four More BIRTHDAYS?

It is that time of year again. Our four kiddos all have birthdays close together. Instead of doing four little, separate parties they get one Huge party. Every year we pick a charity and ask people to bring items for that charity instead of getting the kids gifts. (Honestly, don't we all have more than we could ever need?) This year we made Operation Christmas Child boxes for Samaritan's Purse. The boxes are taken to poor children all over the Earth to share a bit of Christmas joy and the story of Christ with them.

 The kids ranged in age from 4 years to 13 years old. Several of the kids decorate tehir boxes. Don't you just love seeing a child's handwriting? I bet Jesus doesn't mind the "J" being backwards =)

We put together 54 boxes for OCC. It was a blast!

The kids and several of the parents

stayed and helped out.

We have a beautiful community we have <3

We have to C-L-E-A-N? Are you for real... M.o.o.o.o.m.m.m???

In an act of desperation one night, the kids' woke up to these signs all over the house. It has been a tough adjustment for all of us to have me working outside the home for the first time in ...forever! They are used to have me work in the house all day while they are in school. Now, I am at school with them. We are getting better. I just thought you would enjoy a laugh or two at the 'sink's sign'.

I hope where ever you are in the world today that you are having a marvelous day!

Keep the faith and walk in love

~Aggie Amy

My Classroom!

The old Classroom...

The "before" of my class.  

This class has been with three different teachers in the last two years. 

It just needs a lot of love and a lot of cleaning before I can bring in the kids. 

It has taken several days to clear things out. 

Now, to the decorating part :-) 

Stay tuned!

My NEW & IMPROVED CLASSROOM!!!

I love my class, I really love the AWNINGS! 

My dear Hubby worked so hard on them. 

He made three: two over the main windows and one for over the mirror in the room. 

They match my "CUBS" theme:) 

Here is one of the awnings closer. More on them in a second...

A side view of the awning. 

Clearly, I teach at a Christian school and am allowed to share my faith throughout my class :)

Some of the tissue flowers I made to help bring some life into the room. 

$1 pack of tissue paper at the Dollar Store, a twist tie and some folding is all it took!

Here are my repurposed Diaper boxes. 

I covered them with scrapbook paper that matched my theme and stuffed them 

full of all the things I will only use for certain lessons. 

Our Weekly Calendar, which is really more for my benefit that the kiddos, is two frames with 

scrapbook paper. 

The shelf in front is on rollers. I roll it over, write out the week with dry erase markers on the glass, 

and whamo- I am organized!

Here is the sink and mirror area I was telling you about. 

We share a bathroom, but each room has their own sink/ water fountain combo. 

The dots just make me happy.

Here is the underside of the awnings. 

They are made of PVC pipe and look a lot like a soccer goal before we put the material over them. 

They cost $10 for the large ones and $8 for the small one! 

The small wooden square you see up in the top corner is just a scrap piece about the size of your 

palm. It is for the two screws that hold the awning to the wall. 

I need to trim off my excess material. Opps.

The adorable "Book Hospital"! I got the label off Pinterest. I will leave a link when I find it.

Outside, in the hall, needed some 'CUB' love! 

(Sorry about the darkness. Weird camera is smarter than me.)

Here is one plate up close. The little flags say the name of a student.
(marked out for internet use, of course)

The other side of the room with my new rocker, 

a redo from Craigslist, thanks to my resourceful husband.

So, what do you think?

This teacher is tuckered. Thanks for looking!

If you have any questions, please let me know. I'm here to help.

Keep the Faith & Feed His Sheep

~ Aggie Amy

Thus is the life of Army Wife

I have said many, many times over the past 14 years of being an Army wife that I was shocked at 

people. How many people complain about the lifestyle, how many people are totally in love with it and 

how few 'normal' people understand what Army families do. So, I wanted to take to the airways, or 

shall I say, keyboard and educate someone. No, that is not true. I wanted to get some stuff out and 

figured no one would ever read this.

Here it is. 

My list of things you should know about being an Army Wife:

10. Yes, it is hard.

9. Yes, we also long for the days when there is peace in the world.

8. No, we do not get "used" to our husbands being gone or to the endless moving. We survive because
we have no choice. We have to keep a good attitude because we have kids watching us.

7. Yes, we do have a 'good' retirement if our spouse spends 20 years on Active-duty.
But, please, know that the definition of 'good' is different for everyone.
We get paid very little, so 50% of very little is... yep, you guessed it, even littler.

6. No, the military is not all Republican or all Democrats. We are Americans and make up a small sub-culture of Americans. We are from all over and have different beliefs. We put those differences aside to serve together.

5. No, our housing is not that great, but it is close to work =)

4. Yes, we really stop our cars and our selves to salute or put our hands over our hearts at Reveille twice a day. Everyday. (This is a process on post to put up and bring down the American flag at the beginning and end of each day. )Yes, our kids do it as well. We know people, way too many people, who have died in support of that flag. That is the very least we can do.

3. Are the uniforms really that sexy? If you have to ask, darlin' you have never seen "An Officer and A Gentleman".

2. Do those reunion shows make you cry? Absolutely. More, if my man happens to be deployed at the time. Are they exaggerated and cheesy? Yes. Your point???

1. Would we do it again if we knew what all it entailed?  In a heartbeat. I fell in love with my husband before he took that oath, but I knew his heart. He wants to serve. He was made to serve. He serves his country and I serve him by honoring his choice. We are a team and I am proud to be an Army spouse.

The Crew before the latest Deployment. Thank you Lord, it is over!

Keep the Faith and Love your Soldier
~ Aggie Amy

.......

Ideas for Surviving, and Thriving, During Deployment

Deployment. Ugh.

That word alone makes every military wife cringe.

I have been there. My kids have been there.

It stinks. It is hard and it feels like it last forever.

Here are a few quick tips I used during the last deployment to make things a tad easier on the family.

I hope they give you an idea or two.

Daddy Dolls

The girls got "Daddy Dolls" and the boys got personalized 'Dog Tags' like their Daddy's. 

Daddy carried the boys' dogs with him in his ACU leg pocket. They were always close to him. 

The girls still sleep with their Daddy Dolls.  They liked them even better after they put skirts on them!

Flying Questions

The kids told me questions they wanted to ask their Daddy, about anything... 

They asked, "How is the food in Iraq/ Afghanistan?" "What was your favorite cereal growing up?" "If you had to be an author what would you write about?"  

 I typed them up. (At this point I secretly saved a copy and sent it to my husband via email.) 

They cut up their tiny questions and put them inside balloons. 

Can you see the little questions in there?

Off the questions went. 

They traveled all the way to the warzone.

 Can you believe it? 

(OK, so my kids are young and a little silly. But, it made them feel closer to their Daddy, so that's all that matters.) 

Through a lot of faith, and a little help, the questions found Daddy! 

He answered them over the course of several letters. He even included a busted balloon piece 
(...that Mommy had put in his luggage.)

Daddy's Kisses & Hugs

Our "Kiss" Jar was really a 'kiss &hug' jar. 

Each kid got one kiss and one hug a night. 

I replaced them throughout the deployment. 

I really did not worry about the numbers because we have a lot of kids. 

I started lowering them when we had about three weeks left. 

Skype

We finally got Skype about six months into the deployment. 

It was AMAZING! 

This is the first time the kids had seen their Daddy in 184 days. 

We set up times when each kid could talk with just their Daddy listening after this. 

It made the distance seem not so far when he knew all about their day and the crazy thing that so-and-so did.

That is it for now. I will add more as I think of them and go through my pictures.

 God Bless the Army!

As always, 

Keep the Faith and Love your Soldier,

~Aggie Amy